I'm not that
into coming of age dramas (kids just suck, both socially and as
actors, usually) but a girl made me watch this so I might as well get
a review out of it. 'A Monster Calls' was actually pretty good
though, as it featured death, depression, and loss adjustment (three
of my favourite themes).
So there's
this kid in England (apparently a very magical place. I mean, per
capita a lot more magical shit goes down there than in, say,
Portugal) and his mum is dying of cancer and it's sad. He's helped
through it by a semi-imaginary Ent, who tells him stories (the moral
of which are constant bitter reminders that the kid lives in reality,
presumably to prepare him for his mother's inevitable death). I
didn't cry.
It
felt a little like a lighter 'Pan's Labyrinth', both with the
creature design and the whole child imagination or maybe real thing.
The acting is
consistently great, and Sigourney Weaver is the cold granny who I
also enjoyed. I like that none of the characters are portrayed as all
good or all bad. The whole grey thing is a theme - I mean, reality is
a theme. Maybe theme is the wrong word; they're morals, really, and
the film tends to hammer them in a little excessively.
Apart from
that though I can't think of any glaring flaws in this one. I didn't
love it, but I did really enjoy it. It almost made me want to write
something with a child lead. Nah.
A Monster Calls: 52.7